


Blurry

by ElsieIvy



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic, not intended to be Tim/Jason but could be read as such
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 03:32:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5651011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElsieIvy/pseuds/ElsieIvy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim and Jason have gotten in the habit of looking out for each other.  Sometimes Tim needs that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blurry

**Author's Note:**

> These characters obviously don't belong to me. :( I don't even own action figures of these characters. 
> 
> Timeline? what timeline? Seriously though, this takes place at some point after Battle for the Cowl and clearly after Tim lost his spleen, but Bruce is still presumed dead. I dunno. Somewhere in there. (Really I think it's a bit AU since I don't know how Jason and Tim could have found time to bond in there but w/e.)

Tim didn’t catch the flu often. He wasn’t sure if he could thank his brush with the clench for that or if it was simply due to the healthy (if intense) life style and regular vaccination schedule that Bruce had always insisted upon. But Bruce was gone now, and with him his lecture on that correct number of hours of sleep to get a night and the explanations of the exact calories necessary for someone his age and in his line of work. Instead Tim was left with a company he hated and all the paperwork that went with that, an older brother who he could barely stand to look at, no spleen, and a quickly rising fever that he was hoping would go away if he just ignored it.  
Tim picked listlessly at the leftover Chinese food in the carton. The rice had already started to harden and while it may have been salvageable with some cooking skills and a little luck, Tim didn’t have the energy or interest to attempt it. Instead he used the chopsticks to push the food around and tried to get more comfortable on his couch. It was a quality piece of furniture, it had no business being as uncomfortable as it was.  
Tim was nearly asleep, the carton still in his hand, when his phone buzzed.  
“’llo,” he slurred, rubbing his eyes with his free hand.  
“Hey there Replacement. Just checking in on you. You looked a little shaky out there tonight. Wanted to make sure you didn’t fall off a roof on your way home or something.”  
Tim could almost picture Jason’s smirk coming straight through the phone.  
“’m fine,” Tim said without much conviction. He glanced at the thermostat in his apartment, wondering why the place was so warm when the temperature hadn’t changed.  
“Yeah, you sound swell there, Wannabe. The old man isn’t even around anymore and you’re still working yourself to death for him.”  
Tim held the phone away from his head and coughed roughly into his elbow. Jason was still talking when he put the phone back to his ear.  
“… Seriously though kid, you sound like shit. Take a couple of days off. Don’t think I won’t kick your ass if I see you out there patrolling again in that condition.”  
Tim half smiled. He didn’t know how it had happened that Jason, out of everyone, had ended up being the family member who actually kept in touch with him. Dick was undoubtedly busy with the brat, and Babs tried, but she had her own team to worry about. Alfred had reached out more than once, but visiting Alfred would mean dealing with Dick and Damian and that had been something Tim had put a lot of effort into avoiding. So Jason, crazy, murderous, occasionally tried to kill him Jason, had ended up being the one texting him in the middle of the night just because, or filling his safe house fridge with produce because “he hadn’t been eating right.” When Tim had needed thirteen stitches in his side Jason had been the one he’d gone to. And a gunshot wound later, Jason had returned the favor. They weren’t friends exactly but whatever they were worked for them.  
Tim sighed. “I’m getting up and going to bed as we speak. I promise.”  
Tim stumbled to his feet, the room swaying dangerously around him. His vision quickly began to darken at the corners until all he could see was a circle of blurry floor rushing toward him.  
“The floor’s really blurry” Tim gasped out. Were floors supposed to be that blurry? Maybe he could clean it. What was that stuff that Alfred swore by for cleaning tile?  
“Replacement? Tim? Answer me now or I will find you and if you make me come over for nothing I will kill you…”  
Tim dully wondered where Jason was. Somewhere far away from the sound of his voice. Maybe he could bring something for the floor…  
_________________  
It took Jason exactly two minutes to change and get out the door. The motorcycle ride from his safe house to the small brownstone where he knew Tim was staying took another 10 minutes. Ditching the bike and jogging the last quarter mile was another 2 minutes. Somehow Jason managed to break through Tim’s security system and land in his living room less than fifteen minutes after Tim had stopped responding to him.  
Jason wasn’t going to admit he was worried, he was just being responsible. The kid had turned down a chance to be his sidekick, he wasn’t about to allow anyone else the chance to offer him a similar opportunity. Besides the kid was running Wayne Enterprises. Jason didn’t want to imagine the inevitable chaos if he disappeared. So no, Jason wasn’t worried, he just needed to make sure Tim hadn’t been kidnapped or something for his own pride and for the sake of Gotham. Nothing to do with Tim himself.  
Jason wasn’t sure if be relieved or alarmed by the scene in Tim’s living room. Tim clearly hadn’t been kidnapped, instead he was curled awkwardly on his tile floor, not moving, his face an alarming shade of pale.  
“Drake?” Jason asked tentatively, kneeling next to him. “Hey, Pretender, rise and shine.”  
Tim moaned softly, and Jason self-consciously brushed his hand against his cheek.  
“Christ kiddo, you’re burning up.”  
“Jay?” Tim’s eyelid’s fluttered as he struggled to focus on the face lurking over him. He tried to ignore that ringing in his ears and head that always seemed to accompany sudden returns to consciousness.  
“Yeah. Idiots who pass out during phone conversations get house calls,” Jason said.  
“I didn’t pass… oh…” Tim mumbled, the memory coming back to him.  
“Yeah. You told me your floor was all blurry and that’s the last I heard from you. Starting to ring any bells?”  
“I…sorry?” Tim offered. A blush appearing on his pale cheeks.  
“You should be. You got me out of bed for this crap,” Jason said with a sigh. “Any chance you can stand up?”  
“Yeah, maybe… probably.” Tim tentatively pushed himself into a sitting position and cringed when the room made a sudden and unexpected revolution, nearly taking his stomach with it.  
“Easy.” Jason’s large hands were on Tim’s shoulders, guiding his head down to between his knees.  
“Sorry,” Tim mumbled again, mostly focusing on not vomiting.  
“It’s fine. Do you have any aspirin around here?” Jason asked.  
“First aid kit under the bathroom sink and… crap! Grab the bathroom garbage can too.” Tim pressed his lips together and squeezed his eyes closed. His shoulders felt suddenly cold without Jason’s large hands on them.  
It was only a handful of seconds before Jason returned. Tim felt incredibly grateful for the relatively small size of his house.  
Jason gently guided to garbage can into Tim’s arms. Not a moment too soon as Tim’s stomach rolled again and he found himself vomiting up the few bites of Chinese food he had managed to eat, along with the multiple cups of black coffee he’d forced down.  
One of Jason’s hands was once again on Tim’s shoulders, holding him steady. With his other hand, Jason wiped Tim’s damp hair from his sweaty forehead.  
Tim finally stopped retching, and struggled to sit back, leaning against his couch. To his alarm the world had done little to stop spinning. “I’m sorry I dragged you over here. I’m okay. Really. Just a bug.”  
“Yeah, just a bug that made you faint. You that scared of bugs, Timmy?”  
“Funny…”  
“Yeah, I’m more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. I’m gonna help you onto your couch since carrying you all the way to your bed is a little creepy and frankly more effort than your worth. I’m not trying to have you puke on me.”  
Tim bit his lip and didn’t argue as Jason lifted him up and laid him back down on the couch.  
“You need to eat something kiddo, seriously. I think you weigh less than the Brat.”  
“Do not…” Tim mumbled, dimly aware that that wasn’t the most compelling argument.  
“Yeah, yeah. Let me dig through this first aid kit of yours. I just grabbed it and then I was on hair holding duty. I didn’t get a good chance to see what you’ve got in it.”  
Tim flushed again. “Never asked you for that…”  
“Well what are estranged quasi siblings for? Oh good you do have Aspirin. And Tylenol. Can alternate those. You want water with that or a soda or something? Have anything good in the kitchen?”  
“Just water.” Tim doubted he’d remembered to stock any soda, or anything else for that matter.  
Jason nodded and disappeared into the kitchen, returning with a cup of tap water.  
“Down the hatch, Timmy.”  
Tim dutifully took the water and pills from Jason. He swallowed the quickly, cringing as they scraped against his sore throat.  
Jason wandered off again, returning with the pillows and blanket from Tim’s bed.  
“I just made that…” Tim argued.  
“Yeah, lotta good a made bed does when you’d rather sleep on your blurry floor,” Jason retorted.  
Tim sighed and allowed the pillow to be slipped under his head and the blanket to be draped over him.  
“Happy now?” Tim asked. “Ready to head out and let me be miserable in peace?”  
“I would have loved to do that. Really I would. You wanted to run around Gotham and pass out on the phone though.”  
Tim shut his eyes. “Good night, Jason.”  
“No ‘Thank You, Jason’?”  
“Thank you, Jason,” Tim grit out, hoping humoring the man would increase the chance that they could keep the embarrassing night just between the two of them.  
Tim wanted to say more. He wasn’t sure if it was something snarky or something sweet, but there was definitely more he had to say. His fever was pulling him under too quickly for more words though.  
“Feel better, Baby Bird. Believe or not you don’t have the whole world on your shoulders, just a chunk of it. You can ask help occasionally you know.”  
Tim tried to open his eyes, acknowledge Jason’s comments but by the time his eyes finally reopened it was morning and Jason was long gone, leaving only a cleaned apartment and a fridge full of ginger ale to show he’d even been there at all.


End file.
